


divinity

by indefinitearrow



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Mortal Kombat (Video Games), Mortal Kombat - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, Shinigami, Unrequited Love, gods of death, humans in coffee shops, i guess technically a coffee shop au lmao, i was sad when i wrote this so now a main character is dead :/, ummmm it's a death note au, written under the influence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:14:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22092412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indefinitearrow/pseuds/indefinitearrow
Summary: he's been watching her for some time.
Relationships: Kuai Liang | Sub-Zero/Kitana
Kudos: 22





	divinity

**Author's Note:**

> tw; death.

He’s been watching her for some time.

Well, some time to her was roughly twenty-five human years, but shinigami had always processed time differently than humans. Time was something that could be bent, manipulated, and served him and only him. It was a thin, strange line for humans. Precarious, easy to break. Humans were so, so easy to break.

That’s what he’s learned from watching her: she’s fragile. Where his pale skin is cold, hard, and lean, her tan skin looks soft and supple, and looks especially lovely when tinged with pink. A dusty rose hue would paint her tender face, and each time it would stir something inside of him. 

It’s exhausting, sometimes, admiring her beauty. It blows him away each time.

+

The Shinigami realm was so very cold.

Most of its residents were, too. Turns out that gods of death don’t have much to do these days, their very existence a drain on themselves. Love and warmth could not grow in a place such as this, Kuai Liang knew.

But oh, his human made him feel such warmth.

“You’re wasting your time, you know,” Hanzo remarks to him one day, sitting down to his sometimes-friend-sometimes-enemy and placing a hand on his shoulder. Throughout their existence, Hanzo had always had a quiet understanding of Kuai, even if it led to an explosive fallout. 

“I don’t think so,” Kuai says after a moment, pausing to examine his human one more time before resting his eyes on his fellow shinigami. His human had braided her hair today, falling in a long plait down her back, reaching her slim waist. She was dressed in a fine silk robe, applying some sort of white cream to her delicate face. Beautiful.

“One day, she will die, and you will regret spending your days pining after some human,” Hanzo spits, his fiery skull igniting as he ground out the last word. Kuai bristled at his treatment, and turned to fully face Hanzo. At his full height, Kuai stood above Hanzo, his icy features jutting out and encapsulating most of his limbs from his anger. 

“I do not dare question you or your actions, nor how you choose to spend your miserable rotting existence. I would think you’d do the same, all things considered. Or do you need to be reminded just who the hell I am?” Kuai roared, staring his friend down. The smaller shinigami backed down immediately, his eyes downcast. 

Because no one challenged the Shinigami King, Kuai Liang. 

+

i  
wish you not  
bend  
nor  
Break.  
Just to  
hold  
you.  
you are a fire  
in my otherwise frozen walls  
and i can not imagine  
this temple without your  
Divinity. 

+

On this day, the 28th year and third month exactly into watching over his beautiful human, he noticed something that made his heart drop.

The numbers above her head, indicating her date of death, had changed rapidly. As his breath quickened and chest tightened, the numbers ticked by at an alarming rate. Something was going to happen to her.

But what? He searched his view of her, scanning the area for a threat. It was a normal day for the woman. She was in graduate school, studying political science. She was getting her morning coffee at the same shop she always did, and would probably spend an hour going over her classwork before her class. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Something inside of him snaps as he frantically flips through his Death Note, trying to ready himself to save her life. 

“Kuai,” Hanzo gasps, appearing behind him suddenly. In his fury, Kuai had not heard his friend enter his private chambers. “What do you think you are doing?!”

Kuai, crazed, ice overtaking his features, could only cry. 

Hanzo sighed as he made his way over to his friend. “It’s today, isn’t it?”

“It’s not supposed to be today,” Kuai babbled, “The numbers...I’ve never seen it happen before. It’s never dropped so quickly. Something is wrong.”

The other shinigami peered into the viewfinder, noticing the numbers and the corresponding date. “Kuai, you musn’t interfere. Yes, it is strange, but if it is meant to be it, it is meant to be.”

Kuai looked on with horror as he noticed another human approach his love. This one was nearly identical in beauty to his, but her face was disfigured and gnarled. Her short hair whipped around her face as she drew a short blade from her denim jacket. His beautiful creature had no idea as the other woman drew closer, poised to strike. Her name finally came into view, and Kuai knew what he had to do. 

Mileena Kahnum. It’s over.

As he penned her name into his notebook, Hanzo shook his head, his expression a mask.

“You’re a stupid god, Kuai Liang.”

+

Kitana sensed something behind her shift.

She whipped around, upending her laptop and coffee that had been precariously perched on the cafe table to see her step-sister coming at her with her mother’s knife. Her heart nearly stopped as her eyes widened in fear, the adrenaline swiftly coursing through her veins. “Mileena, what-”

But she didn’t finish, because Mileena had abruptly stopped and clutched at her chest, falling to the ground.

Kitana froze as other cafe patrons rushed over to check on her cruel sister, unsure of what to do. Whatever had just happened, had certainly just saved her life.

She quickly turned on her heel as she snagged her laptop and promptly exited the building. Darting down the street to campus, she paused briefly as the sky above her suddenly opened up, the first drops of rain coating her skin. 

Thank you, she thought, before she rushed off to class. 

+

Elsewhere, a skull-headed god watched as the numbers above Kitana Kahnum’s head ticked back up. She would die and join the afterlife around the age of 90.

The pit in his chest deepened as he exhaled, despair threatened to claim his emotions. Their world was so cold, and not even the fire of his flesh could warm his damned soul. It was as if Kuai had been taking all the cold and harsh winds of the shinigami realm and was shielding them all from it, but now that he was gone…

Hanzo, despite flames pouring from his eyes, shuddered from the bitter cold of the realm his friend had left behind.  
Because in the end, Hanzo thought, they all always ended up alone. And there was never any warmth in dark solace.


End file.
